【公开学术报告】Navigating the Congress: Explore the True Ideology of The US Politicians and its Impact on their Votes

Date & Time: 9:30-11:00 am, Mon. 13^th, January 2020

Venue: Room 2101, Tongji Building A

Language: English

Speaker：Dr. Chen CHEN 陈琛（Boston University）

ABSTRACT

As a society, is the US becoming more divided than it has ever been? Most people believe that, during the ongoing impeachment battle, the congress is fractured to a point that any compromise and collaboration between the two parties (Democrats and Republicans) has become unlikely. Understanding the state and evolution of the congresspeople is of great significance since congress can deeply impact and be impacted by the ideology of the whole US, and its passing of the important bill will exert long-lasting influence on both the US and the whole world. My job talk paper, titled “Navigating the Congress: Explore the True Ideology of The US Politicians and its Impact on their Votes”, will attempt to produce an ideology map of the congress on the micro-level and the macro level. On the micro-level, the aim is to define and measure the true ideology of each congressman, investigating their ideological deviation and variation, and eventually understanding the factors dictating their legislative behaviors. On the macro level, I aimed to understand the evolution of the ideological structure of the whole congress using the graphical representation model, asking questions such as whether and how the relationship between congresspeople leads to the formation and disassembly of the faction; whether the congress is truly breaking up to a point where collaboration and compromise have become more and more difficult; whether tribalization is becoming the trend. Overall, I have confirmed the trend of increasing partisanship that was driven by various "hot hub" issues, and within a party, unification can be driven by the pressure of (re)election. Going forward, I want to further understand how the ideology of a congressman, along with other factors, may drive his voting behavior, and how it will impact the passing of controversial yet impactful bills in the congress.